January 4th, 2013 - Eat at the restaurant I always drive by

I am willing to bet that on each of our respective routes to work, there is a restaurant we pass by that we have never visited.  Maybe it doesn't look too appealing.  Maybe the exterior is run down and uninviting.  Maybe it looks like a place where "mystery meat" would be an upgrade over whatever they were serving.  Or maybe it fades into the background of our lives, and when it comes time to pick out where to go to lunch, we simply forget about it.

There are a lot of these kinds of places along my drive through the city of High Point, NC.  Little mom and pop hole in the walls that hold gastronomical treasures that I have yet to explore.  For anyone that knows me, I am a huge local food and restaurant nut.  I plan out my travel according to where the folks on Man Vs. Food and Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives go, and I avoid chain restaurants like the plague.

So it's surprising to me that I haven't been to Kepley's before.



Kepley's Bar-B-Q has been serving North Carolina style barbeque to the citizens of High Point since 1948.  It's a no frills kind of eatery, and the food is served hot and fast.  And while it might not be as good as the joints down in Lexington, it's still pretty damn good. I got the small Bar-B-Q plate, which included pulled barbeque, slaw (which had tomatoes in it, an interesting and welcome addition), and some of the best hushpuppies I've ever had.



It's little places like this that make me the local foodie that I am.  The people in there looked like they've been going for years, and it's the kind of place that grandparents have been bringing grandchildren to for decades.  Old pictures of sponsored little league teams adorn the walls, as do posters of community events long since come and gone.  In short, you could probably find the history of this little city right there among the slaw and the hushpuppies.  I'm sure that the same could be said for the thousands of little places just like Kepley's across the country.

These kinds of places, if we haven't been introduced to them, can be easily overlooked.  They're not flashy and they're not talked about in any fancy restaurant magazine.  But they are the kind of places that are worth a try.  Keep an eye out for them, and don't let them fade into your memory's rear view mirror.  I myself will be going back to Kepley's, if only for another hushpuppy.  Damn, those things were good!